Tossing Mullet
It is always with a real sense of awe that I visit Europe. Having just returned from a very short visit to the western Mediterranean, which featured the two oldest grandchildren, the sense of wonder was even more enhanced by current events. The European Union has been dealing with $4 “petrol” for quite a while and there did seem to be an impressive version of civilization flourishing for a hundred years or so and really quite nicely following the recovery from WWII in the last 50 years.
But the gas increases have generated the same kind of economic pain we are experiencing, and at $6-$7, even they are screaming bloody murder at the cost of fuel. Truckers were striking in Belgium and we saw protest signs hanging on the back of fishing boats in Naples. The cost of everything has risen dramatically over there and what was just expensive a couple of years ago has become prohibitive – could be our last European trip.
But the mindset “over there” seems somehow to be quite different. Barcelona has instituted a whole new public transport system that utilizes a system of bicycle “stations” that allow you to move all over the city with their bikes. You get the use of the bike for 30 minutes to get to the next site – shopping, work or whatever. You drop the bike on a special rack that holds a lot of them – take care of business – go back to the rack and pick up another one and head to your next stop. Very cool!
The agency runs around with a trailer and moves them where they are needed. I’ve heard of some analogs in a few of our more enlightened cities but of course, we use gas-burning vehicles. The irony, of course, is that there are already marvelous systems of public transit in most of the countries. They combine bus with rail and if you admire or enjoy the Metro in Washington, D.C. you should see the system in Paris!
Cities emerged centuries ago, specifically to provide improved efficiency in trade – and closer was certainly better if you had to push a cart loaded with Salmonella-free tomatoes to market! People providing all manner of services also benefited from being closer. Of course the higher densities backfire when you don’t take care of your waste issues and lots of plagues kept the populations down to sustainable levels.
A variety of nut-cases have always looked on war and pestilence as God’s punishment for our evil ways. The HIV/AIDS pandemic was particularly useful since it seemed to be attacking some demographic groups deemed socially unacceptable by the particularly tightly focused extremists. If you haven’t read Lovelock’s “Gaia Hypothesis” or Garrett Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons,” then I suggest you do so quickly. I would particularly recommend the following site – http://dieoff.org/page95.htm#b9. I expect that the explanation for many of our current resource limited crises of the here and now can be found therein.
A couple (probably all) of column readers picked up on last week’s subliminal “mullet toss” (message) dealing specifically with the energy crisis. It is always difficult to deal with the hard cold fact that there are simply so many people sucking so much stuff out of the our beloved planet’s resource base that we can’t sustain our species at this rate.
A lot of people have expressed horror at the Chinese government’s harsh mandates on population control. This has been highlighted recently by the tragedy in Szechwan Province where so many single children were lost. Nevertheless, the policy has prevented the growing demands for energy by that nation to be less than might have been. There are studies that indicate that population growth globally is slowing and stabilizing to some degree and that’s a good thing.
But (why is there always a “but”) – the population that is already here is demanding more and more energy, high protein food, more and bigger vehicles per capita – just like us Americans or at least a lot of us – maybe not so many any more. This translates to more fuel (air pollution), more fertilizer (water pollution), less natural habitat (air and water pollution), fewer species of plants and animals and eventually a planet inhabited by jellyfish, cockroaches and an enormous number of microbes!
As indicated last week, even I have started contemplating the error of my ways and I heard an interesting call-in to Mississippi Public Radio last week from a woman sales person driving as part of her job. She opined that people in general were driving at 65 or slower (as I have noticed myself doing), which she felt was a good thing from both a safety and fuel efficiency point of view.
She commented that the size of food portions in this country were excessive compared to Europe. It was indeed interesting that my 14-year-old grandson commented during our trip that the people he saw in Europe seemed slimmer than similar crowds in America. And it was true that there seemed to be lots fewer Americans than usual touring with us – thanks to the rapidly falling value of the dollar against the euro. That he would notice this at all is absolutely remarkable since his primary obsession was for European “football” jerseys and finding gifts for friends and family back home (with my euros).
Consequently I would simply like to point out the obvious – we no longer live in a time when everybody can have all they want of everything. There is no longer enough clean air or water, open beaches, fish in the sea, grain in the field, or oil in the ground to satisfy the global population demands. Unfortunately it doesn’t matter how hard you work; how educated you are; how well you behave (or badly) or even how much money you have – there simply isn’t enough “stuff” to go around!
There was life after $4 gas in Europe and there may be life everywhere after $6 gas, but it won’t be the same!
George Crozier is Lagniappe columnist. Contact him at george@lagniappemobile.com.
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Tossing Mullet
